Did Gordon Brown read the zeitgeist right last year when he declared that Britain had fallen out of love with cheap celebrity? The latest series of Big Brother, which comes to its firework-exploding finale tonight, has not scaled the giddy heights of publicity and viewer figures it once had. Ladbrokes, the bookmaker, has slashed its odds on the show being pulled before 2010 when Channel 4’s contract with Endemol, the production company behind the programme, ends. The axing of the series in Australia prompted media commentators to predict its death here, too. Sales of the celebrity magazines, Heat, Closer and Reveal, have fallen. So perhaps our love affair is, as he said, over.

But can we believe a prime minister who seems incapable of reading the nation’s mood on anything? Moreover, can we trust a man who has appeared on American Idol and is an obsessive fan of The X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent (to the point that he has considered becoming involved in an Apprentice-style show for politicians)? He did not even have the courage of his convictions when he met Mark Frith, then editor of Heat magazine, at Number 10. Mr Frith recounts in The Celeb Diaries that he introduced himself to Mr Brown, saying: “apparently [celebrity magazines] are on our way out”. To which a flustered Mr Brown replied: “No, I didn’t say that . . . Er, I don’t mean the kind of people you put in your magazine, obviously,” before inquiring politely: “How does Jordan sell for you?”